Black History Month Archives

| via | Between Mr. Gaines from A Different World passing away and me losing my BBQ sunflower seeds, this Black History Month was on a fast track to becoming one of the saddest in history. Until, that is, Twitter banded together, shed their shrouds of indifference, made some hot, sweet, sticky, witty love* and Read More

Harambee, brothers and sisters in struggle! With the blessing of another year comes another chance to celebrate our nappy ass roots and search the forgotten annals of black history. For the last few years, we’ve been bringing you the wildly informative and 100% true and accurate* series Know Your History, wherein we tell you the Read More

Reminder: For history nuts, bio buffs and ery’one else , “Thurgood”, Laurence Fishburne‘s one-man show about the civil rights activist and Supreme Court Justice premieres tonight on HBO tonight at 9PM. (There’s an encore presentation on February 27th in case you miss it.) I remember vaguely reading Marshall’s autobiography in junior high, but on my Read More

Got to love this song. Well no, you don’t GOT to…but at least appreciate what Lupe is trying to do in a genre where conscious rap–while it surely isn’t dead its constant balancing act between sellability and socio-political responsibility often make it a less-than-profitable venture record labels usually shy away from. Lupe evidently aware of Read More

William Andrew Short was born in New York City in 1953, but by 1974 he was known as Willie Dynamite, a driven, heartless pimp determined to be #1 on the scene. He was well on his way until his operation was brought down by Cora, a social worker who did her best to convince the Read More

The horror comedy Gremlins was released in 1984 to mixed reviews and allegations of racism from the black community. Per Wikipedia, “Patricia Turner writes that the gremlins “reflect negative African-American stereotypes” in their dress and behavior. They are shown “devouring fried chicken with their hands”, listening to black music, breakdancing, and wearing sunglasses after dark Read More

Imagine: you’re a staggeringly powerful alien from another planet who crash lands on Earth and grows up as a white person in the United States. It’s probably safe to say that you’re going to have some serious issues with entitlement and privilege. So it was for young Clark Kent, who grew up in lily-white Smallville, Read More

(via) Thomas L. Jennings, a free man of color, made history when he became the first black man to hold a patent. It was for a method of dry cleaning clothes known as “dry scouring.” This process required first applying a solvent to the surface of a stain, which was then placed in a heated Read More

Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem were an interracial rock n’ roll band that broke racial barriers, headed by Dr. Teeth who was born of a black mother and green father. Originally, the band was known for its edgy, raunchy lyrics; banned in the UK, their 1960 debut album, Fur in Your Teeth, featured such Read More

Roosevelt Franklin was a member of the cast of Sesame Street in the early 1970s. The revolutionary character was believed to be African-American based on the way he spoke and his propensity to sing/dance/rhyme/scat in normal conversation. He was the founder of Roosevelt Franklin Elementary school, wherein he taught his pupils — also believed to be Read More